Cheer the Brave

Jack McNaughton marries widow Elsie Randolph, looking for some kindly creature comforts. He's vastly disappointed by her self-serving behavior in this rather lugubrious comedy.

Miss Randolph seems have had a knack of looking older than her years when she wasn't dancing up a sexy storm with Jack Buchanan. She plays a pretty nasty piece of work in this comedy, putting on airs of grim morality, immediately punctured by all who know her. It's clear that McNaughton realizes pretty quick what he's in for, but sticks loyally by her... until opportunity presents itself. It's also a chance to see Marie Ault in her final screen role as Miss Randolph's dipsomaniacal mother. She had died three months before the movie's release at the age of 80.

Neat little black comedy about a lonely man (Jack McNaughton) who marries the wrong woman.

As Rose (Vida Hope) comes out of a church crying, we assume she's at a funeral. Rather, it McNaughton's wedding to Doris (Elsie Randolph). Bystanders gossip about why on earth he married Doris, a sour widow who lives on a widow's pension. We soon find out just how big a mistake this was.

As soon as he moves into Doris' flat, she starts nagging and complaining. She hoards his earnings and lies about how she spends money and what she does while he's at work. When her mother and sister come to visit, he learns just how common Doris really is, despite her airs.

After two years of this domestic misery, there's a knock on the door that leads to a surprise (and very welcomed) ending.

Randolph and McNaughton are excellent. Cast also includes Geoffrey Keen as Bill, Marie Ault as the mother, Helen Goss as the sister, Sam Kydd as the barrow boy, Mavis Villiers as Shirley, and Violet Gould and Eileen Way as the gossipers.